


Fade to Brilliance

by ideallyqualia



Series: UshiOi [6]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Swan Lake Fusion, Birds, M/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-11
Updated: 2017-06-11
Packaged: 2018-11-12 16:33:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11165748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ideallyqualia/pseuds/ideallyqualia
Summary: One day, Oikawa finds a swan in a lake. Somewhere in another kingdom, a prince goes missing.





	Fade to Brilliance

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is a year old but I never got around to posting it before.

According to Prince Iwaizumi, Oikawa could vanish into thin air. He was apparently very good at it, disappearing at "convenient" times and becoming "unreachable" even with magic.

Iwaizumi meant it as a joke, but Oikawa really didn't know why he became impervious to contact magic whenever he went on a trip to the lake. He found it a few months ago, and he came to visit alone once in a while, traveling to admire the scenery and the clear shining surface on the lake. The wind always blew at a pleasant speed, the kind of cool lulling freshness that took Oikawa to the ocean when he couldn't actually go there.

Oikawa couldn't use magic, so everyone had to know that he wasn't intentionally eluding magic with his own. Only magic could negate magic. And the perpetually mild weather gave it an immaculate feeling that was peacefully mysterious.

He stuck his sword in the ground and paused to readjust his gloves. He considered taking off his armor and spreading it on the floor to rest in the lake's presence, but he decided against it. Even though it was peaceful, and he doubted anything could happen, he didn't want to feel exposed in his plain clothes.

He linked his hands together and stretched his arms out with a satisfied noise ringing in the air. The clouds were as picturesque as ever, obscuring the light of the moon surrounded by stars, and he threw a glance up to marvel. Within a few minutes, the clouds would sweep away, and he could see the moon in full glory.

A small splash echoed across the clearing, and Oikawa swiveled in its direction. A large swan near the lake's shore was gathering its wings to itself, the edges of one wing glistening with water. Its head faced Oikawa with wide eyes. After gauging Oikawa's harmlessness, it sailed back and forth along the water at a slow speed. Its neck curved in a graceful arc ascending from its body, trimmed in the occasional mix of gold, with a black pattern at its eyes.

Oikawa put his gloves back on, and his hands returned to the hilt of his sword. The swan flinched and swam backward.

His eyes darted to his sword, and he quickly sheathed it, placed it down, and walked forward. "Okay, no sword."

He turned his empty palms up. The swan remained closed in on itself, its neck curled to its body and its eyes watching Oikawa. After a few minutes of staring, it retreated deeper into the lake area, swimming to the other shore and staying by a large rock.

Oikawa sighed. He had already spent a long time here, and he needed to head back. He turned and left.

 

* * *

 

Oikawa crept into the castle library. He was welcome everywhere, but he preferred to hide from questions. He didn't want to tell people that he was digging around in the ornithology books for information on swans. A beautiful swan could attract hunters.

He flipped the pages in an encyclopedia. He thought his brief encounter was enough to identify something, but he couldn't even remember if it was a magical creature or not. He was torn between looking through books on mundane animals or on mythical ones.

"What're you doing?"

Oikawa recoiled and jerked in his chair. "Watari, don't creep on people like that." He relaxed. "Be _noisy_ when you come in."

"Isn't this the library?"

"All the more reason to be noisy and get my attention." Oikawa waved him off and returned to reading.

Watari stepped closer and stopped at his table. "You're a knight. Why are you reading--" he raised the book to glance at its cover, "--the 'Encyclopedia of Avian Wildlife'?"

Oikawa swatted his hand. "Don't touch my books."

"They're not yours. This whole library belongs to Iwaizumi's family."

"You're being a distraction. You should leave."

Watari's eyebrow rose, and he pressingly tilted his head.

Oikawa grumbled. "I saw a swan a few days ago."

"I can guess that much." Watari eyed the open page of swans. "Why are you suddenly reading up on it? Have you never seen one before?"

"Of course I've seen one. I've stepped _outside_ before." Oikawa crossed his arms and reclined in his chair. "It's just that this swan was gigantic. I've never seen one that big before. And that lake's always had this...atmosphere to it. This is the first time I've seen any animal living there."

"You think there's magic involved?"

"Unless it's just a bizarre swan species." Oikawa pointed at the page.

Watari leaned in to look. "Have you found anything?"

"No." Oikawa's arms fell. "They're all small and boring. Ugly, too."

"These don't look ugly," Watari said, tracing his finger along the shapes of a few swans.

"They're vicious. They're ugly on the inside." Oikawa rested his arms on the table, and his mouth pursed in a frown. "That one looked a little scared."

Watari patted his back. "You sound really invested in this lake."

Oikawa shrugged him off. "I'm not invested."

 

* * *

 

A couple weeks later, Oikawa returned. He thought about bringing an animal expert along, but he didn't want to raise suspicion. This wasn't that important where the authorities where concerned. He came alone again, this time with food supplies and a small notebook and pen.

He removed his sword completely and left it on a rock, including the sheath and belt. It was his only weapon, and he made an obvious show of taking it off, in case the swan was watching.

He approached the shoreline. "Swan? Are you out there?" Oikawa walked around, navigating the rocks and dirt along the shore, his hands swinging with his legs in his momentum. He stopped a few times to call out.

Oikawa didn't get a response. He muttered to himself and crouched to the ground to toss vegetables and seed at the floor.

"Why can't this bird come out? I'm just curious."

He stood up and dusted his hands together. He could see ripples in the water, but no splashes or shadows of bird figures, and no swans.

"Fine. Don't come." Oikawa threw his hands up. "Stay here forever."

He trudged to a flat rock and sat down to take in the lake again. He still stayed away from his sword, just in case, and his notebook rested next to his feet, ready to be written in for swan viewing purposes.

 

* * *

 

"Alright. Knock it off."

Oikawa dropped a book. He hesitated and fidgeted to pretend it didn't happen. "Iwa. What're you doing here?"

"It's _my_ library." Iwaizumi eyed the books on the table. "You've been busy on this weird project of yours for a while now. It was fine at first, but it's taking too much of your time now, and it's been dragging on for too long."

"But I need to do it."

Iwaizumi crouched to pick up the stray book, and he returned it to Oikawa's table. "Why do you _need_ to?"

"Because."

"No. Don't go 'it's top secret' again. I'm not letting you get away with that." Iwaizumi slammed his hands on the table. "What've you been _doing_?"

Oikawa turned his nose in the air to the other direction. "I found something at the lake, and I'm investigating it. I'm supposed to investigate suspicious things, right?"

"You're a castle knight. You're supposed to stay here."

"I don't slack off."

Iwaizumi pulled away. His mouth shifted, but he didn't say anything.

"Ha. You can't argue with that," Oikawa said.

"You still haven't told me what this is about. What about the lake has your attention?"

Oikawa's mouth tightened. "A swan," he said, muffled through his compressed mouth.

"A what?"

"A swan," Oikawa said.

"What? A swan isn't worth all this." Iwaizumi flicked at a book. "You want a pet? Just go bug Hanamaki for one. He knows all about them, and he can get something for your weird tastes."

"I don't want a pet!" Oikawa waved his hand in dismissal. "If you're not going to take me seriously, then you can leave."

"I'll listen. Hurry up and tell me what it is."

Oikawa's lips quivered in hesitation, but he broke and turned to him. "There's something about that lake, Iwa. I want to get to the bottom of it. This swan doesn't fit any of the species in any of the books. It's bigger than any bird I've ever seen, and it's not as mean as all the books say they're supposed to be."

Iwaizumi rolled his eyes. "Uh huh."

"It's the only animal living there."

"You're not doing a good job of convincing me that it's worth it." Iwaizumi tapped his fist on the table. "Don't spend too long obsessing over this. You shouldn't be distracted thinking about this while guarding the castle."

"Nothing dangerous has happened in ages."

"That sounds like the mindset of someone slacking off."

Oikawa sat higher. "I won't disappoint."

 

* * *

 

He brought even more food this time. He packed it in a larger bag and filled it with different breads and vegetables, and he snacked on them as he sat on the rock overlooking the lake.

"I have dinner, if you'll come and get it."

Oikawa took a bite of bread. The water rippled again, but he didn't receive another response. He stared out at the water, his eyes drowning in a trance from the shimmering reflection of the stars. He stayed in place for a while, and after the water lost his interest, he frowned, willing the swan to appear.

He sighed and got to his feet. "Taking my time would make Iwa mad," he said with a grunt as he stood. "Ugh. Come out, you bird."

Oikawa grumbled and glanced over his armor. He had to take it off. The sharp angles and shining metal fit too much with the sword. It was probably still intimidating.

He moved his hands to his chest plate and began taking his armor off, carefully, one at a time. He sent glances to the water and trees, and still, he couldn't see a swan.

After the last piece, he kicked at the ground. Dirt flew up in dusty clumps. "Come _out_. I can't keep visiting the lake like this."

He returned to the rock and sat back on his hands, his legs dangling from the edge. The rock jutted out too high for his feet to touch the water, but he cast a distorted reflection on the surface, glimmering at a disorienting, feet-first angle.

A wet babbling sound rung from a part of the water hidden by a cluster of bushes. Oikawa's head rose, and he made his way over a few large roots, stepping over them with caution to keep his feet from tripping. He cleared a group of fronds and looked down.

The swan collected itself after walking away from the water. It sat in a huddle and raised its head at Oikawa, its eyes staring ahead at him in a calm curiosity, while its head remained at a shy angle to avoid him.

Oikawa went still. He didn't freeze with the quickness of shock, but his body steadied into tension, down to his feet.

The swan waddled by a few centimeters in his direction. Its wings fluffed a little more, puffing his size to an overinflated one, and it stopped and lowered its head to peck at the ground.

Oikawa relaxed. "See, I'm nice."

It clacked its beak and honked, its whole body caught up in the volume, wings flaring with a brisk flap. The piercing loud noise knocked Oikawa backward, and his yelp rose to match the screeching.

Oikawa dusted off his legs. "I was just trying to help, you know."

The swan hobbled back and shrunk into its body, nestling in its feathers and curling up. It blinked at Oikawa.

He rumbled in a groan and shifted to reach for his supply bag. "Don't trust me even when I took off all my armor? Fine. Here." He threw a chunk of carrot at the ground.

Its eyes closed for a moment, shifting in a delayed reaction, like a slow flinch. It stretched its neck to the food, and after a tap of its beak into the carrot, eyes on Oikawa, it began to nibble. The stiffness in its body uncoiled, and it ate a little faster.

Oikawa crossed his legs and propped his elbows on his knees, making himself comfortable. "See? I'm not a bad guy. I'm a good guy. Perfectly trustworthy."

The swan shuffled away once the food was finished. It retreated under a bush, its head covered by a growth of branches and leaves. Oikawa tested forward a bit further and followed it, extending his hand with more food.

"Want some more? I brought more."

Oikawa refused to put it on the ground this time. He waited for the swan to step closer and take a tentative bite from his hand. It cocked its head, eyes flickering between the hand and Oikawa's face, pausing from eating.

"Hurry up and eat. I can't stay long." Oikawa wound his finger in the air to gesture urgency.

It tilted its head in a bite to glance at him.

Oikawa lowered his free hand over it, forming a cup to fit and cover its head. He moved as slowly as possible, making gradual increments toward it, the glacial progress burning a faint ache in his arm. At the contact his shoulders rose rigid, but it didn't pull away. It turned its head under his hand, and the motion brushed featherlight and cloud-like in his fingers, not quite tickling. The soft edges of its feathers brought Oikawa to run his hand over and over to feel it until his hand went feather-numb.

He shifted and pressed down on its feathers, flattening them until the swan's eyes were forced into a squint.

"Aww, you're kind of cute." He cooed and brought his other hand under its chin and ruffled its feathers. The stroking continued with a couple more pleased chatters, and after the carrots were gone, the swan closed its eyes.

Oikawa patted its head and got to his feet. "I have to go back to the castle. See you next time."

The swan remained in place and watched him leave.

 

* * *

 

"And Iwa told me he thinks _I_ took it. I don't _like_ cooking. I don't have any use for a stolen recipe." Oikawa waved his hand in an extraneous gesture in the air.

The swan sat a few feet away, head angled to listen to him. Oikawa tore off another piece of vegetable and placed it on the floor.

"Do you think I can cook? I don't think I look like someone who can. Honestly, Iwa has no tact or sense." Oikawa dug his teeth into an apple.

He swallowed and picked up his pen. His notebook was small, meaning a couple pages were already filled with scribbles and paragraphs. One page was claimed by sketches of the swan in different poses, with its body floating in the water and another at its full wingspan. It didn't help Oikawa when it didn't signify much about its size, and its other features blended normal with the other swans Oikawa knew, so he stopped there and focused solely on writing and keeping track of when he visited and what the swan did.

He concluded that it was intelligent. Sentient. If he didn't know better, he'd believe it was a magical animal. It couldn't speak, but it nodded yes and no, and it listened to him with full and credulous attention, remaining stiff in discomfort when Oikawa cooed too much, and crooning its own noises when Oikawa said he wasn't feeling well.

"You're a good bird," Oikawa said. He wrote down the date and tapped his pen into mindless drumming.

The swan extended its neck to reach for his hand, aiming for the pen. Something splashed in the lake, and it froze. Oikawa swiveled to the water.

"What was that? Do you know?"

It shook its head, but the movement struck Oikawa as forced and too fast, a head shake of denial. Oikawa scrambled to his feet for a glimpse. The swan tugged at his leg, followed by a trumpeting honk of alarm, but Oikawa slipped out of its grip and crept to the shoreline.

By the time he made it the noise had stopped and the source had disappeared. Disturbances in the water rippled in small waves as aftereffects, dying off in the middle of the lake.

Oikawa sighed. "I'm never going to find out what's behind this lake." He rubbed his hand against his head and slinked to the floor.

The swan neared him, waddling with dampened footsteps on the packed forest dirt. Its feet found a depression in the ground, and it sifted more dirt out until it was satisfied. It settled down into its secured makeshift nest.

"I bet you know what that sound was. Tell me what it was."

The swan curled its neck around itself.

"You're going to tell me. You're smart. I'm not letting you get away." Oikawa slid to his knees and shot an irritated look at it. He didn't get a response.

He placed his hands on the floor. "Sign with your beak. Write something in the dirt. Pick up the pen."

Its breathing deepened into a rhythmic pattern, its wings rising and falling, preparing for a nap.

Oikawa groaned. He rocked back and crossed his legs and arms. "You're doing this on purpose." He let his head hang forward in a lazy tilt. At this point, he was hovering over the swan, and his next heavy exhale rustled its feathers.

It startled at the touch of his hand, but it quickly relaxed again and returned to dozing. Oikawa brushed his hand over its feathers in quiet strokes. He worked his mouth through a few questions and remarks, and everything died in his throat. The silence fell with a comfortable breeze mixing and blowing over them.

Oikawa tamped down its feathers with another stroke. The wind blew pleasant over his hair, stirring it behind his ear and on his neck, skimming at a hum on his skin. His hand grew thoughtless and slower, squeezing its back and rubbing near the base of its wing. Its soft feather-cushioned body felt therapeutic in his hand, light and pliable, but Oikawa barely registered the significance.

The repetition of it left his hand tingling. He removed his hand and frowned at the charmed numbness. "How long was I petting you?"

It flicked its wings and shuffled to get comfortable again. Oikawa huffed. "If I don't know, then I don't know how you'd know."

He stretched his arms to the sky. "I'm all out of food for the day," he said with a yawn. He knocked on his notebook with the back of his palm. "Too bad I don't know what your favorite food is."

He extended the stretch to his feet and yawned again. "I'm getting tired. You are, too, aren't you? Take a nap already."

The swan's eyes fluttered shut. Oikawa smiled gently.

 

* * *

 

Oikawa returned to the lake under the reign of a full moon. It shined bright and deep in the night sky, set in the darkness with the sentiment of an immutable force. Barely any clouds lingered in the sky.

He lowered his hand to rest it on the swan's back. The swan squinted its eyes at him.

"You're very comfortable, you know," Oikawa said. The swan closed its eyes and lowered its head into Oikawa's lap.

A splash erupted on the lake water nearby. Oikawa spun to see, and the swan flared its wings out and screeched at him.

"You can't stop me from finding out what else is in the lake," Oikawa snapped. He trudged to the lakeshore and hesitated.

Curiosity got the better of him, and he removed his shoes and waded into the water. Oikawa swept fronds and cattails aside to peer into the lake, and in the water below, huddled into a feathery trembling mass, was a group of swans. Many of them were small but all of them were smaller than the one Oikawa had befriended.

"Oh! It's your friends. Why didn't you tell me you had friends? I could've been bringing more food this whole time." Oikawa crouched and extended a hand. "Hi, I'm Oikawa Tooru. I'm a knight around here."

One of the smaller swans swam forward and bit his hand. Oikawa yelped and scrambled backward, nursing his hand close to his chest.

"I'm harmless, I just want to pet you." Oikawa gripped his injured hand and grumbled.

Oikawa's swan, the large one that was comfortable with him, approached him and butted its head into his side. The silent brief movement was so slight that Oikawa barely felt it.

Oikawa sighed and reached his hand around to stroke the swan's head. "Alright, I get it. Your bird friends are wary. You were trying to keep me from them, weren't you? It's okay, I won't do anything." The swan effortlessly dodged his hands to resettle at his side. Oikawa's hands fell away and he sat back on them.

Instead of returning to Oikawa's lap, the swan chose a spot a noticeable distance away from him and laid its head on its own back. Oikawa huffed out a sky-directed breath that disturbed his bangs.

"You were eating out of my hand all the time, and now you're shy? That's very, very rude."

The swan looked at the ground for a few moments, its eyes slowly blinking. Then, with puffy feathers, it shuffled to Oikawa's side and sat. It didn't lose its stiffness when Oikawa stroked its head.

"You're so shy and stubborn." Oikawa laughed with a hand on its head, his body laughter shaking his hand. "Aww, you're so cute." He sifted his hands through the swan's feathers over and over, from top to bottom and then removing them to start at the top again, like affectionately combing a human's hair.

The swan's eyes darted around among its friends as it hunched in discomfort. The other birds only watched with wide eyes. One of them danced back and forth on its feet, silently clapping. Oikawa's swan swiveled to deliver a failed glare at it.

"Here. Be nice and share with your friends." Oikawa dumped all the food he had brought with him onto the floor.

The swans relaxed and spread out to peck and nibble at the fallen vegetables. Oikawa's swan relaxed as well, in its own way, flattening out into a fluffy feathery hunched ball.

"You look like a turtle," Oikawa said with a laugh. The swan closed its eyes with a slow resignation.

 

* * *

 

Oikawa sat still and let the weather toss his hair. The cool night wind tickled his neck in soft touches, like a ghost. The small group of intelligent swans living at the lake introduced their own soft magic, too, and Oikawa could say he wouldn't be surprised if he saw a real ghost.

"You're not ghosts, are you?" Oikawa asked them to be sure. They reflected his gaze back at him in their wide eyes.

Oikawa sighed. "That would be too simple an explanation... Can't you guys do something, say something? What _are_ you guys?"

They exchanged glances with each other. Oikawa's swan just stared back at him.

Oikawa twirled a finger in his swan's feathers. "You're all hungry. That's what I can tell."

He sat up to reach to his bag and unwrap more food -- lettuce. The swans started clamoring for it with their beaks open, flapping their wings and pecking at each other. Oikawa tore off leaves and threw them in the air to watch them pluck the food like seasoned berry harvesters.

"Do you guys ever get lonely? I get the feeling you do. Especially king bird over here," Oikawa said as he pointed at his swan.

The swan tucked its head under its wing. Oikawa thought it was embarrassed at first, but after a minute, it withdrew and offered a feather to Oikawa in its beak.

"A feather?" Oikawa accepted it and spun it around. "It's soft and pretty." A slow creeping light dawned on the ground from the lakewater, and Oikawa fumbled backwards and almost dropped the feather.

Water rose from the lake and enveloped the swans in swathes of light that blended into the rising waves. A human was left behind in each swans' place, dressed in old tattered clothes.

Oikawa's eyes flickered around them. "What..what're you..."

One of them stepped forward. "My name's Ushijima Wakatoshi. Thank you for taking care of us. I was the first swan you met."

Oikawa still sat back on his hands, the feather in one of them. "Ushijima? You... Didn't you go missing a year ago?"

"I did," Ushijima said.

Oikawa's eyes went wide, the bubble of the moment almost exploding. Then it did, and Oikawa brought his hands to his face and laughed behind them, the feather tickling his ear. "You?!"

Ushijima was a prince of a neighboring kingdom. Oikawa didn't like him, but he hadn't know anything about him, either. He just knew him as the quiet prince that was well loved for reasons Oikawa had never seen.

"What happened to you?" Oikawa asked.

Ushijima pointed at someone in his entourage with red hair. "Tendou accidentally angered a witch, and she cursed all of us."

Oikawa erupted into full laughter. "I can't believe it."

"Uh. My bad, Wakatoshi," Tendou said.

"We'll talk about this later." Ushijima faced Oikawa and bowed. "I'd like to repay you for your kindness and food, but I don't know where we are."

"He's always bad with maps and directions," one of Ushijima's friends said.

"You're _lost_ ," Oikawa said. He couldn't stop laughing. All of Ushijima's friends had started to talk, filling the area with noise and chatter, but his laughter was loud enough to be heard over them.

"Yes, I am," Ushijima said, bristling with defensiveness.

"Fine, fine. I'll take you to my kingdom so we can get you a ride."

Oikawa led them back to Iwaizumi's castle. He would later come to learn that the feather was a gift of love.

**Author's Note:**

> (General A/N): Not looking for concrit; don't leave any.


End file.
